Nameless Painting

Sometimes the hardest part of a painting is it's name.  In this case, I really don't know what it is and so it makes it harder to come up with a title.  I know that's stupid, but it is what it is. I chose to paint this scene because of the strong values I found in my old photo source. It had such an interesting design pattern.  I really liked the old peeling paint on the device in the foreground.  The challenge was to come up with a textural feeling that was believable.  I used a little salt, sprayed some paint over patterns for the background, and used paints that leave a good granulation like Lunar Earth by Daniel Smith.  The one disappointment was that I did not use Arches Rough, because it really helps when trying to paint lots of texture into a painting like this one.  That said, I'm happy with the result.  If anyone has an idea of what the machinery is I'd like to  know.

Art Camp

I spent last week in Grass Valley with four good friends, making art....well, that was the idea, but we were all tired and slow to start.  Once we got going some very nice work was done by one and all.  We spent one day exploring Nevada City and taking tons of photos with hopes of some good references for new paintings.  We enjoyed the geese and goslings ( counted 28) that came to wake us every morning on their way to the lake viewed from the deck on the  property.  I felt as though we all benefitted from the time together and since this is our fourth time at 'art camp' I can see the strides we all have made in these four years.  Looking forward to next year.  Above you can see 2 pieces I finished while there.  The first one, 'Trees across the Lake' was an attempt at plein air painting. Wanting to project the mood of the serenity of the scene,  I used 300 lb Arches wet in wet, and completed most of the painting outside.  Later I used Carn d' Ache watercolor crayons to finish the job.  The second piece,  ' Cottage in the Woods' was painted directly, dropping in colors that I wanted to show through to the finished work, yellow, opera and permanent rose, peacock and some cobalt.  I wanted to keep the mood warm and give a sunny feeling to the tree trunks.  I think they both have the mood I was working toward.